Just uploaded 4 new issues to the 80’s Skatezine Gallery, bringing the total to 42, with plenty more to come. These latest 4 have a Midwest focus, Skate Straight (#8 and #9) from Dayton Ohio, featuring lots of Surf Ohio / Cow Skates action, and Chi-town Shred (#3 and #6) from Chicago. Still trying to figure out who sent me the scans of Skate Straight, email crashed over a decade ago and all I have are a couple corrupt PDF’s.

Day 5 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no particular reason.) Yes, there are lots of obvious things I could have covered (Skatopia, Rob Dyrdek’s Kettering Skate Plaza, Devo…) but you know about those already. Instead, here’s a bunch of random, unrelated Ohio items. – Thanks to Zack, Dan, and Clint for the tips.

Day 4 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no particular reason.) Public Square Group is part skateboard/skatepark advocacy, part community outreach, and part skateboarding support group. They are named after the Cleveland’s public plaza, a not-built-for-skateboarding spot that has a history in the scene dating back to the 80’s. They also run the Skate Kitchen, which until this year had been in an actual physical location with an indoor miniramp. The non-profit membership based model (with public hours) seems to have been replaced with pop up skate events while they look for a new space. Grindline recently finished Cleveland’s Crooked River Skatepark on the riverfront. Opening day was snowed in, Meanwhile, Broadway Skatepark in the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland has already gone through early design presentations. Public Square Group is acting as the conduit for feedback. – Thanks to Dan Overfield for the tip. [Video Still: Share the River]

This is day 3 of 5 Days of Ohio posts – for no particular reason. This came in from reader Jeff Haynes: When I think of Ohio, I think of G.S.D., Donnie Humes and Smelly Curb Zine, the Dayton Visitor’s center, and most recently Fickle Skateboards. What makes this Cincinnati skate “company” different is that Lew Ross is known to drive to Canada to pick up veneers, presses his boards in his workshop, and does all production work d.i.y. from pressing to printing to shipping. It looks like Fickle has been around since 2009. Even while early boards were made by Pennswood, the DIY spirit was still going in those early trucker hats that look like the logo was spray painted on with a stencil. Fast forward to today, and Everything is done in-house, even the pressing and screen printing of the boards. Still need suggestions for 5 Days of Ohio.

On day 2 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no real reason) we have various, assorted histories of Alien Workshop, from Transworld Skatebaording, Realm 3, Quartersnacks via Will Staley, and Jenkem (Musical history). If you’ve got any good Alien Workshop links, leave them in the comments. Send your tips for 5 Days of Ohio.

I’m starting a week of Ohio-centric posts, one a day. There is absolutely no reason for this. I have a few lined up, but I could use some Ohio tips if you’ve got ’em. First up is Condensed Flesh, which is a video zine specializing in, but not limited to documenting the Cleveland, Ohio Skate/Art/Music/DIY scene. Episodes 5, 6 and 7 document the progression of the Funwall DIY park in Cleveland as seen in Stuck in Ohio. Condensed Flesh may be Ohio based, but episode 6 travels all the way to Bolivia!

Stuck In Ohio, brings you The Definition of Ohio Skateboarding. It’s a skateboard specific part of a larger project. There are two things I like about this video; the attitude and the wealth of cool looking spots. Remember Surf Ohio! Also, We are all Devo.

I don’t usually post a lot of random product announcements unless it tickles my fancy. This one I’m featuring purely because I still love the midwest, even though I don’t really want to live there. If you’re a long time reader you’ll also know I’ve got an affinity for all things Surf Ohio/Cow Skates. Assault Skateboards just released a board for Ohioan Mark Heintzman that is more or less a re-issue of his old ketchup bottle graphic for G&S. Assorted Mark Heintzman video and photo paraphernalia after the jump. – Thanks to Jeff Haynes for the tip.

Grindline is set to work on a new design for a public skatepark in Cleveland Ohio. There’s a public forum today, Wed. April 28th at Speakeasy, (under Beir Markt) on 1948 West 25th Cleveland, OH. Public Square Group has the lowdown, and it looks like the local two-wheeled community is gearing up to get their pegs in the door. F-Word. I can’t believe ESPN pays people to write about BMX and Skateboarding. How did I miss that job posting? My apologies to Eugene skaters closer to home here, I slipped up on posting about the event last weekend. – Thanks to Matt Jamison for the tip.